Diwan-i Qa?imiyyat

Hasan Mahmud Katib (d. after 640/1243) was an Ismaili poet. Born near Qazvin, he was alive when Imam Hasan of Alamut (d. 561/1166) proclaimed his doctrine of qiyamat or spiritual 'resurrection' in 559/1164. He was a secretary of the governor of the fortress of Gird Kuh, Shihab al-Din, whom he later followed to Quhistan. Around 630/1232 he was in Alamut, preparing a copy of the diwan whose surviving fragments are published here, to be offered to the Imam of the Ismailis at the time, ?Ala? al-Din Muhammad (d. 653/1255). Hasan Mahmud was well-versed in the intellectual and spiritual universe of Nizari Ismailism as recorded, inter alia, in Nasir al-Din Tusi's (d. 672/1274) Rawda-yi taslim, Sayr wa suluk, and Aghaz wa anjam. The present diwan contains the most complete contemporary catalogue of the terminology used in expressing Nizari Ismaili doctrine, surpassing even the works of Tusi, Nasir Khusraw (d. after 462/1070) and Nizari Quhistani (d. 720/1320).